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BBC’s Tolstoy stirs Russian passions

Russian viewers of War and Peace complain of historical flaws and a mouse-like heroineMitch Jenkins/BBC

The haircuts are wrong, the costumes are a century out and one bedroom scene looks like a raunchy perfume advertisement.

The BBC’s recent adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace is stirring passions in Russia after it was broadcast on state television. Among the criticisms are that one principal character resembles a “podgy musketeer”, while the actress who plays the sparkling heroine of the novel, Natasha Rostova, is “grey and mouse-like”.

Lily James was criticised for playing the heroine Natasha Rostova as “grey and mouse-like”Robert Viglask/BBC Robert Viglask/BBC

While viewers and critics have pointed to many inaccuracies, there has also been a wave of positive sentiment over the mini-series, in particular the bravura performance of the American actor, Paul Dano, as Count Pyotr “Pierre” Bezukhov, the novel’s hero.

Tolstoy’s masterpiece about Napoleon’s assault on Moscow in 1812 is a totem of Russian culture,…

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